Consider a 'Super BRAC'

Thursday

Jun 30, 2011 at 2:00 AM

On June 30, 1997, one of the largest real estate transfers in history was made — the United Kingdom surrendered the island of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China at the end of the 99-year lease that Britain had made with the former emperor. We have some leases of our own coming due, and we should begin to think about them.

CYNTHIA STEAD

On June 30, 1997, one of the largest real estate transfers in history was made — the United Kingdom surrendered the island of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China at the end of the 99-year lease that Britain had made with the former emperor. We have some leases of our own coming due, and we should begin to think about them.

Back in 1940, the United States refused to get involved in the war in Europe. Britain was in dire straits fighting the Axis powers, and President Roosevelt was anxious to help, but Congress and the Neutrality Act only allowed "cash and carry" purchase of arms.

So Winston Churchill came up with a scheme to allow FDR to aid Britain, based on the Chinese lease arrangement, and called it "Destroyers for Bases," later lend-lease. We secured leases for naval bases and airfields in British possessions across the Caribbean and the Atlantic coast of Canada, and 50 surplus American destroyers transferred to the Royal Navy and Royal Canadian Navy in exchange for rent-free, 99-year leases on various military installations.

We had done this kind of thing before — we got the Cuban base at Guantanamo Bay because of a different Roosevelt, Theodore, and continue to pay rent for the facility even now.

FDR supplied guns and boats to the Allies along with munitions, food, transport aircraft, trucks, and rolling stock. Two-thirds of the trucks for the Red Army were American-built Dodges and Studebakers, and the Soviets also received around 2,000 locomotives for supplying its forces at the front.

At the end of the war, the U.S. allowed Britain to purchase the "loaned" equipment for about 10 cents on the dollar, and they finished paying it off in 2006. Lend-lease provided $50.1 billion worth of supplies to the Allies during the conflict, with $31.4 billion to Britain, $11.3 billion to the Soviet Union, $3.2 billion to France and $1.6 billion to China. These leases end in about 25 years — and what will be done with the bases then?

Some were terminated right after the war — bases in British Guiana, Antigua, Jamaica and Trinidad were closed in 1949. Naval Air Station Bermuda operated until 1970. But there are more still open, and they are valuable properties.

Of the two bases in Antigua, the Coolidge Airfield is now Antigua Air Station, but elsewhere the Antigua Beach Resort Hotel began its life as an army officer's mess and became a tourist destination due to its long airfield. But we also acquired other bases in Europe and Asia, like Ramstein and Osan. We've opened new bases in Bulgaria as recently as 2006.

The end of the lend-lease facilities, though, provides a natural deadline to reexamine all of our overseas bases. It was said of the British that they acquired an empire in a fit of absentmindedness, and we have done something similar.

Right now, spending at all levels of government is under intense scrutiny. Defense spending often receives less scrutiny than other types, as questioning it is sometimes deemed unpatriotic or dangerous. But many question the far-flung U.S. military installations and the cost of maintaining and staffing them.

These lend-lease bases, located in allied countries, are a good place to start looking at cutting back. The next president will arrive at the point where the leases on the bases are three-quarters expired. It would be a good idea to commission a "Super BRAC," similar to the Base Realignment And Closure, which was held domestically in 2005.

We need to begin now, as these bases won't have just citizens and senators advocating for and against them, but foreign governments. The economic impact of a base closing in Nova Scotia is just as great on surrounding communities as closing a base in Massachusetts or Kansas.

Back in 1976, we simply gave Goose Bay Air Force Base to the Canadian government. After having built the base and staffing it, we simply gave them the keys and a pat on the back. While this may have been a generous gesture to a neighbor and ally, it is something we can no longer afford. Perhaps for the remaining bases, we could instead examine turning over a base in return for a 99-year lease on the production of a hydroelectric plant, or guaranteed natural gas out of Sable Bay.

The lend-lease bases will expire right around the same time that Social Security is predicted to become insolvent. Maybe we should begin to match up our future assets against our future commitments and see if they can offset.

Cynthia Stead of Dennis serves as the Cape and Islands' Republican state committeewoman. Email her at cestead@gmail.com.

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